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Christianity

Here you will find library and internet resources for research on topics and issues in Christianity: religion, culture, and history.

Librarian Recommended Websites

Primary Sources

The Bible's Old Testament was originally written (mostly in) Hebrew and (a small portion in) Aramaic. The New Testament was originally written in Greek. When translating the text to English, three main "translation theories" or approaches are employed by translators: literal (i.e. word-for-word), dynamic equivalence (i.e. idea-for-idea), and paraphrase (i.e. modern retelling). Individual English translations tend to follow one approach consistently over their entire translation process, but the related issues can be quite complex.

Translation Theory

Choosing a Bible: A Guide to Translations (One graduate school, Christian Theological Seminary, has put out a helpful guide that examines some of the more popular English translations, such as the NKJV, NIV, RSV, etc.)

Bibles

  • Christian Bible (For an English translation, scroll down the page a bit, in order to find an English translation. Over 50+ English translations are listed. The most popular ones are the ESV, HCSB, MSG, NASB, NIV, NKJV, and NRSV.)
  • Hebrew / English Interlinear Bible (An interlinear Bible is a special kind of Bible that has two versions of the Bible lined up together. In this case, an English translation of the Old Testament is lined up a Hebrew version of the Old Testament.)
  • Greek / English Interlinear Bible (An interlinear Bible is a special kind of Bible that has two versions of the Bible lined up together. In this case, an English translation of the New Testament is lined up a Greek version of the New Testament.)

Other Websites

  • Lib Guide from Credo (Religion)
  • Bible Study Tools (This website allows users to search the Bible using keyword searches. In addition, users can search by different translations of the Bible. Also, these keyword searches can be limited to searching in just one part of the Bible, such as in individual book, group of books, or just the Old or New Testament.)
  • List of Official Denomination Websites (This website by the Hartford Institute for Religious Research contains links to an exhaustive number of denomination websites.)

Evaluating Web Sources

Once you've found a good website, you need to use your critical thinking skills to evaluate the information:

The following guides may also be useful for you as you research your subject:

Search Tips for Finding Quality Websites

TIP #1:  USE SITES RECOMMENDED by sources that have editors, professors, scholars, scientists, or librarians who review and select the best sites. Recommended links lists can be found in these research guides created by our librarians, and online databases such as Britannica, CQ Researcher, CREDO Reference.

TIP #2:  USE FORMAT TERMS when using a search engine such as Google:

  • Video, movie, streaming media, webcam
  • Audio, listen, hear, transcript, recording, MP3, interview, podcast, lecture, presentation
  • Document, research report, academic, scholarly, journal, statistics, pdf, “white paper” “policy statement” “environmental impact report” “primary source” summary, abstract, overview, history, background, chronology, timeline 
  • Encyclopedia, dictionary, handbook, manual, “how to”

TIP #3:  USE SEARCH COMMANDS, or use the advanced search:

  • Google Advanced Search: ...................  http://www.google.com/advanced_search
  • “post traumatic stress disorder”............. Quotation marks around a phrase finds that exact phrase
  • +women  +careers  +nontraditional....... Plus mark requires words to occur on each page retrieved
  • +surfing –internet................................. Minus mark will exclude sites with marked words
  • +medic?  +”heart disease”.................... Wildcard symbol finds all words that begin with those letters
  • +medic*  +”heart disease”..................... Some systems use the ? and some use the * just try both
  • Either medic? or medic*........................ Finds medic, medics, medicine, medicines, medications, etc.

TIP #4:  USE SITE SEARCH to limit to .edu, .gov, or to specific websites:

  • “bird flu” site:.edu                                        finds the exact phrase “bird flu” only in .edu websites
  • bird flu site:www.who.int.en                          finds the words bird flu on the World Health Organization website
  • mental health statistics site:.gov                   finds the words mental health statistics only in .gov websites

TIP #5:  USE LOTS OF SEARCH WORDS that relate to your topic. Think of synonyms, variant forms, and plurals. Consider what words might be used by journalists or popular media, as compared to scientists, specialists, or researchers. Remember, you are searching a HUGE database with all kinds of content. Maximize your chances for success by including as many search words as possible. Some examples:

  • protest demonstration unrest march riot police government civil disobedience
  • women woman gender careers occupations jobs discrimination income salary salaries wages
  • teenagers adolescents teens young adults youth social cultural norms pressures problems issues
  • crime criminals violent offenders prevention recidivism treatment education programs